Learning that Amazon will begin collecting and remitting sales taxes from its Massachusetts customers next fall was “the best news” that George Saber, owner of Saber TV in Fall River, heard Tuesday.

“That’s great. That’s fantastic news,” Saber said. “This will help all brick and mortar stores. It levels the playing field. This is going to raise a lot of money for the government, billions.”

Saber said the fact that online retailers like Amazon can sell products without their customers paying the state 6.25 percent sales tax places small businesses like his at a disadvantage.

“It’s definitely an unfair advantage, and it doesn’t make any sense in today’s day and age, when everything can be tracked and recorded,” Saber said. “Why shouldn’t they be forced to pay a sales tax?”

Gov. Deval Patrick’s office announced the agreement Tuesday in a press release.

The online giant retailer — which sells books, electronics, clothes, even groceries — will begin collecting sales taxes from Massachusetts residents on Nov. 1, 2013, in time for next year’s holiday shopping season.

“I value the contributions large and small employers alike make to Massachusetts’ economic vitality, and this agreement captures that,” Patrick said in a prepared statement.

Mayors of several cities and small business associations had been pushing for a deal to compel Amazon to collect the sales tax on its Massachusetts customers. The Alliance for Main Street Fairness estimates that the state has lost out on $600 million in e-commerce sales tax collections since 2007.

The Massachusetts Main Street Fairness Coalition said the state could reap between $25 million and $45 million in additional annual tax revenue from the deal with Amazon, which said it will also work with Patrick’s office to push for federal legislation to create a nationwide framework to collect local sales taxes.

The Fall River Area Chamber of Commerce worked with other business organizations across the state to push for Amazon collecting the sales tax, said chamber President and CEO Robert Mellion.

“We worked on this issue as an issue of fairness for local businesses,” Mellion said.

“The status quo was that Amazon.com had a competitive edge. For the little items, that’s fine. But for the larger ticket items, that becomes a burden for the local businesses to be able to compete against.

“The fact is, these local businesses have invested in the state of Massachusetts, in their local communities and townships. Amazon hasn’t,” Mellion added.

Amazon purchased a North Reading technology firm earlier this year, and the company also has an office in Cambridge. Amazon said it plans to create “hundreds of high tech jobs” in Massachusetts in the coming years. The company said it will also work with state leaders to lobby for federal legislation permitting interstate sales tax collections.

Page 2 of 2 - Amazon currently collects sales taxes from customers in several states, including New Jersey, California and Texas.

Paul Charest, owner of Eastern TV, 1196 Bedford St. in Fall River, said customers have incentives to prefer tax-free transactions. He noted that the state’s annual tax holidays usually reap the year’s busiest sales.

“No doubt, this will definitely help,” Charest said. “Just the idea that they don’t have to collect the taxes, that’s ridiculous. I have to collect taxes from my customers from Rhode Island, and then I have to send (the state) the money.”

Mellion said that Amazon’s tax-free items were “good for the consumer, but very bad for the local retailer.”

Meanwhile, the sales tax will not deter some frequent Amazon shoppers from purchasing items online.

“I frequently shop on there. Prices are cheap enough, I wouldn’t stop shopping because of a tax,” said Lorie Trainor, a Dartmouth native who lives in Brookline.